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Parshat Chayei Sarah
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו
Discovering the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
חיי שרה

'And Your Holy Presence which You have imbibed within the innards of our hearts, She shall bear witness, this very day faithfully before You, if we have loved Her, if Your Unity we have acknowledged by our mouths, if we have lauded the praise of Your Truth...' (Taktu Tfilot of Ramhal, Prayer 68)

Our souls are as sparks, so-to speak, of the great Fire of the Holy Presence, and in this way the Holy Presence is 'imbibed within the innards of our hearts.' So our Sages teach us, that even a sinner who has been hanged by the Sanhedrin in capital punishment is bemoaned by the Holy Presence which says, 'woe to my head (so-to-speak the head of this man hanged whose soul is associated with the Holy Presence), woe to my arm.' This concept makes us realize how profoundly deep is our soul connection to the Holy Presence of our Holy Land, just as a husband and wife are connected as one soul. Let us internalize this concept, especially when we direct our prayers towards the Holy Presence of our Holy Land. Let us internalize this connection and indeed be able to truthfully say before HaShem, 'we have loved Her, Your Unity we have acknowledged by our mouths, and we have lauded the praise of Your Truth...'

One of the ways we can connect to the Light of the Holy Presence in our Holy land as it is internalized and 'invited within' the souls of Israel, is by learning about the righteous of the Holy Land generally and of Hebron - Beacon of the Holy Land, specifically. Indeed, our Sages teach - 'how can one cleave to the Holy Presence? By cleaving to the Godly righteous.' This teaching also means that by studying the righteous ways of these righteous one cleaves to them, and thus 'cleaves', so-to-speak, to the Holy Presence.  Therefore, the theme of this sixth year of 'Leshichno Tidreshu' will be to concentrate on the righteous who lived, worked and/or are buried in Hebron, aside of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs upon whom we already concentrated upon during our first three years.

One of the most strikng figures of Hebron aside of the Patriarchs is Jesse, father of David, who is buried in the Admot Yishai neighborhood of Hebron. About Jesse it is said that he is one of the only four righteous that died with no sin (Shabat 55b). It is therefore no surprise that Mashiah is often coined as 'the son of Jesse.' Jesse is also one of the 'eight princes of mankind', along with figures such as Samuel, Messiah and Elijah (Suka 52b).

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #242

'One Rabbi came to me asking why the book 'Hemdat Yamim' is in my yeshiva's library, considering the fact that there are claims that this sefer is attributed to the school of Shabatai Zvi. That very day my wife's aunt 'happened' to bring me a booklet from Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook's library, which its very purpose was to defend the book 'Hemdat Yamim' from these claims made upon it.

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